Enough
by Red River
Summary: November nights were meant to be like this. One-shot, mild AU. Sasuke's perspective. Sasuke x Naruto, light.


Disclaimer: The words are mine, the characters are not.

A/N: A short one-shot that has, like all my one-shots, its origins in an image. Again like most of my one-shots, I do my best to avoid fanfic clichés. As a result of my attempt to sidestep blushing, stammering characters, the intended pairing is very light here. You're welcome to take it as strong friendship, if you prefer. This story is alternate universe, I guess—the universe wasn't very important to me. In case anyone's interested, the image song for this piece is "Gravity" by Vienna Teng, one of the most beautiful songs I've ever had the pleasure of listening to.

As a last note, I like Neji in earmuffs. It's a funny image for me.

Warnings: None.

Pairing: Sasuke x Naruto, light.

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**Enough**

November nights were meant to be like this.

The sun was gone, but the world had not forgotten its touch just yet, and the great expanse of sky showing between the last of the season's scarlet leaves ached with its memory, heavy beneath the pale blues and violets that day's soft fingers had left behind. The first stars were shivering in the arms of the barren trees, following like a train of shy diamonds the shadows that were growing long across the sidewalk, whispering under the sound of skittering leaves and footsteps that were fleeting in the gathering evening.

It was dark enough to mute the lines of the landscape but not so dark that the streetlights outshone the vestiges of the sun; it was cold enough that Sasuke was glad for his jacket but not so cold that Naruto had pulled up his hood, his blue eyes bright with the reflection of the sky as he smiled into the twilight.

"It gets dark really early in fall, huh?"

Sasuke didn't answer, but he looked up, following Naruto's gaze to the sky that looked so cold under its quiet colors. Naruto crunched a pair of leaves under his foot and leaned into his stride, his voice dipping into a complaint that still had a laugh on its tail.

"I hate math. I hate geometry. I hate proofs more than anything. I got points off my homework even though I proved the angles were equal!"

Sasuke frowned, glancing sideways at his companion. "'Because Shikamaru said so' is not proof."

"Yeah, it is. That guy's never wrong. About math. About anything!"

A few lines of unimpressed disbelief settled into Sasuke's eyes at the simplistic statement. "Anything ever? In the entire world?"

"Okay, fine! Anything to do with books." Naruto kicked a scuttle of leaves and they danced back from him, skittish under one stray and one steady set of footsteps. Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "Anyway, the teacher's just mad 'cause I tried to turn in Shikamaru's homework last week."

"With his name still on it," Sasuke added.

"I crossed it out!" Naruto's voice was indignant but his body stayed loose, his arm brushing Sasuke's as the two walked together through the thin autumn air. Sasuke listened to the rhythm of their sleeves touching and shook his head.

"I take it you have math homework tonight, too."

"It's like sixty pages, I swear. Sixty pages of stupid proofs." Naruto turned to look at him, the fading light settling like white shadow into his eyes. "You're gonna help me, right, Sasuke? Right?"

He always asked. Most people would have started assuming, after a while. Naruto never did. Sasuke released his sigh and lifted his gaze, watching the watercolor sky slip into the west. "Is there no one else you can ask?"

Naruto had caught his hand. He did that sometimes, when they walked close together. Their woven fingers swung back and forth, slow and simple like Naruto's laugh. "Sure. I can always _borrow_ Neji's homework. He loves sharing."

"He hates you," Sasuke said.

"What are you talking about? We're pals!" Naruto's smile was too bright for its teasing lie, warm like the hand that kept him anchored to Sasuke as they cut across the lawn. "Or we could be, anyway. Long enough for me to get his homework."

Sasuke was shaking his head again, his eyes dark with the shadows and the response he hadn't made yet, when his companion stopped, tugging backward on the hand that was still bound to his own.

"Hey, Sasuke—look, look!"

That hand was insisting he turn back, so Sasuke did, facing Naruto and following his gaze into the sky. The wind came up and rattled the branches of the tree above them, sending whisks of red leaves down around them, soft shimmers of crimson that the dying daylight had burned to solid rust. But Naruto was looking past them—up toward the sky that had gained clouds in equal measure to the gathering darkness, up toward the sparse white flakes taking the place of painted leaves in the upper half of the world.

"It's snowing!" Naruto cried, excitement and the snow crystals widening his bright blue eyes. "Snow already! That's so cool!"

Naruto wasn't holding his hand anymore. His hands had found the sides of Sasuke's coat instead, moored in the warm, black fabric of the jacket that was more than a match for such a bare snowfall. The snow made the air seem colder, but Naruto's breath was warm, drifting up to his companion's face as Sasuke looked at the snow and then looked back at Naruto, steadying his forgotten hand against the shorter boy's shoulder.

The snow and the last of the red leaves came down around them like seasons in motion and Naruto stared up at them with a smile that was brighter than the sky and brighter than the snowflakes, as bright, maybe, as the light in his eyes that had not left when the sun did. Then Naruto turned that smile right on Sasuke, tightening his hands into the fabric of the coat, and Sasuke smiled, too, stealing a little of that warmth to thaw the corners of his mouth.

"Maybe we'll have a snow day tomorrow," Naruto said, his voice the only echo in the first snow stillness. "Then I wouldn't have to do any homework at all!"

Sasuke smirked, studying those eyes one more time before he turned back toward the dorm. "I wouldn't bet on that."

Naruto hadn't lost his grin, slipping into step with Sasuke as the fickle snowflakes dusted his shoulders. "I guess Neji and me are going with Plan B, then."

"Naruto."

But Sasuke didn't say anything more than that, because his inflection should have been enough and that hand had found his again, so impossibly warm against his palm, five fingers knitted so easily to his. Naruto didn't say anything, either, though it looked like he wanted to—there was a voice calling to them from out of the distance, gaining substance in the figure waiting with crossed arms at the base of the dorm's front steps, and they both turned to look, forgetting their conversation.

"Naruto, Sasuke. Where have you been? Evening check-in was half an hour ago."

The voice was Neji's. Sasuke couldn't see his face through the snow and the settling dusk, and his preoccupation with the smile on his companion's face. Naruto must have been able to, because he snickered and looked up at Sasuke with lines of amusement standing out on his cheeks, not stars but snow lighting up his eyes under the glow of the streetlamps.

"I think Neji's wearing earmuffs," Naruto said, his voice louder than it should have been in the silence eager for echoes. Then he pulled Sasuke into a run, laughing under his words and the pulse of their pounding footsteps. "Come on! I've gotta see before he takes them off!"

Sasuke didn't care about Neji's earmuffs. He ran anyway. He ran because he did not want to let go of that hand, or the eyes that were looking back at him over one snow-encrusted shoulder. Naruto grinned and Sasuke tried to remember his last November snow and couldn't. But he would remember this one, and that was good enough.


End file.
